Classical Liberal Arts Academy
CLASSICAL STUDIES & TUTORING FOR CATHOLIC STUDENTS OF ALL AGES
The Trivium is a name for the the language arts in the seven liberal arts. The arts of the Trivium are Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric.
It is important to realize that these are not three levels of study or three stages of learning, but three separate arts to be studied and practiced. In fact, they are the three arts on which all philosophical studies depend.
Grammar is the art of speaking and writing rightly. This art is divided into four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax and Prosody. Orthography is the study of the letters and sounds of a language. Etymology is the study of the words of a language, that is, the parts of speech. Syntax is the study of sentence-making, how words are joined together to express judgments, questions, commands, wishes, and so on. Prosody is the study of the rhetorical powers of a language, and include pronunciation, accent, meter and figures of speech.
Logic, or rational philosophy, is the art by which our ideas are ordered according to the truth. The art of logic is divided into six parts, each of which is taught in one of six books published by Aristotle in his “Organon“. In the Categories, we study disconnected ideas that exist in the mind. In “On Interpretation“, we study how ideas are joined together to form judgments (propositions). In Prior Analytics, we study how propositions are joined to form arguments (syllogisms). In Posterior Analytics, we study how demonstrative syllogisms are formed. In the Topics, we study how dialectical syllogisms are formed. In Sophistical Elenchi, we study how contentious or sophistical arguments are formed which are not true arguments but only appear to be so. These studies combine to form the art and science of Logic.
Rhetoric is the study of the means by which we may procure credibility in speaking. We study the effects of arguments (logos), character (ethos) and emotion (pathos) on the human will and how they may be affected by a speaker. The art of Rhetoric is learned through the study of Aristotle’s work “The Art of Rhetoric”, along with a number of books by the Roman philosophers Cicero and Quintilian.
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we make the study of the Trivium simple–not easy, but simple. We provide free, self-paced, online courses on all of the authoritative works on Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. From the first lessons in Grammar through the final lessons in Rhetoric, all of the ancient Trivium can be learned in one place.
To get started in our free courses, please see visit the Academy Study Center. For articles and videos on the Trivium, please use the links below.
If you have any questions about the Trivium, please contact us.
God bless your studies,
William C. Michael, Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
One place, therefore, is to consider whether that which is inherent according to some other mode, is to be assumed as an accident. But this error especially takes place about genera. As, if someone should say, that it happens to whiteness to be a color; for color is not an … Read more
Of problems some are universal, but others partial. The universal, therefore, are such as that “All pleasure is good.”, and “No pleasure is good.”. But the partial are such as, “A certain pleasure is good.”, and “A certain pleasure is not good.”. The things, however, which are common to both … Read more
In lesson 30, we studied the declension of the Latin pronouns. In lessons 31-34, we will study a number of different composite pronouns, built from the simple pronouns studied in lesson 30, whose meaning and declension are important to know for Latin reading and translation. To complete the objectives of … Read more
It is also useful for the purpose of perspicuity, to consider in how many ways a thing may be predicated. For anyone will more easily understand what he admits, when it is explained in how many ways a thing is predicated. It likewise contributes to the constructions of syllogisms against … Read more
But similitude is to be considered in those things which are indifferent genera thus; as one thing is to a certain other thing, so is one thing to another. Thus, for instance, as science is to the object of science, so is sense to that which is sensible. Likewise, as … Read more
The differences also in genera themselves with respect to each other, must be surveyed; as, for instance, what difference there is between justice and fortitude, and between prudence and temperance; for all these are from the same genus, virtue. This must also be surveyed in different genera, which do not … Read more
But in how many ways a thing may be predicated must be so discussed, that we must not only endeavor to explain such things as are predicated in a different manner, but also the reasons of them. Thus, for instance, it should not only be explained, that in one way, … Read more
Propositions, therefore, are to be selected in as many ways, as there are modes in the definition of a proposition; so that we may select, either the opinions of all men, or of most, or of wise men; and of these, either of all, or of most, or of the … Read more
Let, therefore, the genera about which, and from which arguments are produced, be defined in the manner before-mentioned. But the instruments through which we abound with syllogisms and inductions are four; one of which is, to assume propositions; the second is, to be able to distinguish in how many ways … Read more
These things being determined, it is necessary to explain how many species there are of dialectic arguments. And one of these, indeed, is induction; but the other is syllogism. What syllogism, therefore, is, has been before shown. But induction is a progression from particulars to universals. As, if there is … Read more